Bob Shryock: Weighty mystery goes unsolved

It’s difficult to rationalize the loss of weight experienced in the last year, especially since I haven’t been trying to lose.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly the reincarnation of Don Knotts. I still have a decidedly unattractive belly. I’m not ready to model Speedo. Despite my wife’s efforts to turn around my lifetime of bad eating habits, I still don’t eat enough proper food.

But since the first of the year I’ve unintentionally shed about 20 pounds and the other morning hit my low weight mark, 187, for the last 20 years. It means I’ve dropped 33 pounds since topping off at a disgusting 220 a few years back, when it appeared I was storing acorns in my jowls and a medicine ball in my tummy.

Since it seems everything that is happening to my body these days is in some way connected to my battle with Parkinson’s disease, I did a little Googling and discovered PD weight loss of as much as 50 pounds is common. Also, women are more likely to lose than men, putting me in the minority again.

But the mystery is why this happens. There’s no scientific explanation.

Dr. Patrick McNamara, a PhD, asks these questions: Do PD patients eat less after diagnosis? (In my case, a resounding no.) Do those fighting depression experience weight loss? (I’m not depressed; hear that, I’m not depressed!) Does all that shaking and trembling cause more energy to be used and more fat to be burned? (After 2003 brain surgery, I no longer shake and tremble.)

An exasperating yo-yo weight battle dates to high school when I was a reed-thin 115-pound runt who captained the basketball team and tried to avoid physical confrontation. One time it didn’t work and Mechanicsburg’s all-state linebacker Bud Kohlhaus flipped me on my head on a misfired breakaway layup, KOing yours truly.

I remained skinny through public school and college despite eating diner food almost every day for 12 years. I didn’t get fat, but I did get zits, ODing on fries and onion rings. A bundle of endless energy, I ran far and fast to offset an awful diet that excluded all veggies known to man.

After moving to Gloucester County in 1964, I maintained a slender body for several years. Then, after discovering pasta and pizza, it happened. One night I went to bed weighing a svelte 130. Next morning, honestly, I awoke weighing 160, without a clue what happened.

Since then, it’s been an up-scale trend. In the ’70s, I was around (OK, a round) 170, then 180 in the ’80s, and so on. At the same time, my hair was falling out at a similarly frightening pace. No connection maybe, but odd.

In the space of 15 to 20 years, I also tried every diet known to man, none of them with positive results. Once I lost 30 pounds in 30 days on physician-prescribed uppers, then sat on the sofa, deeply depressed, for 30 more days when the wise doc wouldn’t allow a refill.

In all these years, I’ve intentionally lost about 400 pounds via dieting, and regained it all, plus a bunch.

Since I’m also a heart patient, I shouldn’t be making light of this. The truth is, I eat better, and smarter, than in many years ... but still couldn’t wait for Nathan’s recent opening in Woodbury Heights.